This Woman Cut off Her Lover’s Penis, Carrying it in Her Purse as a Keepsake
Story of Sada Abe's obsessive love for a married man.
The life of Sada Abe teaches us an important lesson: choose your lovers wisely. We live in a strange world where we can not absolutely be certain what the other one is thinking about us. A person who deeply loves can plot a murder — just like Sada Abe did. Let’s dive into a ridiculously strange story of this weird woman:
Sada Abe’s twisted past
Sada Abe was born in Tokyo in 1905. She belonged to an upper-middle-class family and was the seventh of eight children.
Despite owning a privileged background, Sada’s story was complex because, at 14, she was raped by an acquaintance, resulting in troublesome behavior.Unable to tolerate Sada’s mood and actions, her parents, three years late to the incident, sold her to “geisha house,” hoping her life would get back in order.
Sada, though, contradicts the reason, clarified that her parents detested her overly friendly relations with boys. Getting fed up with her image of having several lovers, her parents gave her punishment—sending her to Geisha house.
Her journey from a “geisha” to “restaurant eel”
In Tokyo, a geisha girl was the one who knew how to entertain men through art, music, and dance at gatherings.
Abe didn’t quite fit in the world and wanted more liberty. She escaped the restrictive world and became a licensed prostitute.
Abe found trouble for herself, even in that low-key world of prostitution, when she began stealing from her clients. To avoid any legal action, she left the licensed prostitute system and verged on a new journey to an illegal brothel.
Life threw more lemons at her—the illegal place got raided, she settled as a paid mistress in one of her friend's brothels. The way the man treated her did not please her.
Quitting prostitution for welcoming happiness in her life, Abe started work at restaurants as a specialized eel. Her life became complicated as the restaurant owner, Ishida, who was already married, became attracted to her.
The start of a dangerous and obsessive love story
The feelings were mutual, so they rekindled their love on numerous nights in the hotel.
The infatuation was intense, as they were not even bothered to become decent when maids entered to clean the room. Kichizo Ishida seemed only interested in the physical aspect of the relationship.
But sadly, Sada Abe had fallen in love—that too deeply. In no time, her passion transformed into an obsession. Jealousy overpowered her whenever he used to return to his wife. Sada began drinking—heavily.
Purchasing a kitchen knife, she threatened Ishida with killing him. Instead of getting terrified with the idea, the poor man remained in his fantasy world, becoming rather intrigued than intimidated.
Sada finally turned into a murderer
Two days later, finding Ishida asleep, Sada used the same geisha belt and choked him until he died.
Next, she did a terrifying act: severed Ishida's genitals and wrapped them carefully in a paper, putting them into her purse. Making use of Ishida’s blood, Sada wrote on his thighs “We, Sada and Ishida, are alone”.
The reflection of her obsession did not end here as she took a knife and carved her name on Ishida’s arm. Grabbing her purse, which had Ishida’s penis, the woman checked out of the hotel.
It didn't take much longer for the hotel to find about the horrific act. Upon discovering the body with the message, they spread the news like fire, alarming the press and police to hunt Abe. National panic erupted.
The pursuit Of Sada Abe: the chase began
Where was the lady when the police were chasing her like crazy? Well, she was casually shopping in Tokyo—even watched a movie in the cinema all the while. She was fearless, essentially because she was waiting for her death.
Sada had already decided she would kill herself; thus, one on May 20, she checked into a random hotel with a fake identity. She wrote farewell letters to her friends in the hotel room and then, for committing suicide, proceeded towards a mountain on the weekend.
Even before killing herself, she did the most inhumane act—something beyond your perception. She wanted to relive memories of Ishida one last time, thus unwrapping his penis to feel her past.
She could not jump off the mountain as she planned. When she returned to the hotel, the police had already tracked her down. Abe invited them, admitted her crime, and offered the genital as proof. Police were horrified at the sight of Ishida’s penis, upon which she gave a statement:
I wanted to take the part of him that brought back to me the most vivid memories.
Police were confused about her motives, and upon the question, she answered:
I loved him so much, I wanted him all to myself. But since we were not husband and wife, as long as he lived, he could be embraced by other women. I knew that if I killed him no other woman could ever touch him again, so I killed him.
Further, she added:
After I had killed Ishida, I felt totally at ease, as though a heavy burden had been lifted from my shoulders, and I felt a sense of clarity.
The strange verdict of the court
A huge crowd waited for her outside the court. Sada herself wanted to be executed, but the court just sentenced her for six years in prison. What is stranger was her sentence actually commuted, and she walked freely after five years?
Upon release, the woman wants to stay low profile, but soon the media's attention interests her. She took the advantages, gave interviews, and wrote her autobiography, which later was turned into a movie.
Her life didn’t have much to offer. Returning to being the waitress, she served the restaurant for twenty years before disappearing again in 1970—to a place no one knows.
Where Sada went and what happened to Ishida’s genitals?
From that point onwards, there were just questions and questions but records. People deemed she retreated to the nunnery, but again it is just a mystery. Her mysterious fate added a perplexing layer to the bizarre case.
After Sada Abe’s trial, Ishida’s genitals, his testicles, and penis were shifted to Tokyo University Medical School’s pathology museum. Until World War Two, those parts were available for public display but then they vanished — just like Sada Abe did. Strange.
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